Cosmas, Project Manager of ZPP  (Zambia Primate Project) has been nominated for a TUSK  Conservation Award! It is a very prestigious award and he is one of only 3 nominees. We had to celebrate… be rude not to, right?!

Check out the links below!  My sister Sue nominated him in February this year and we are all so excited that he will be coming to London to receive his award from Prince William at a black tie event at the Claridges in November!

2023 Tusk Conservation Awards Home

http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/primates/campaign-action/zambian-primate-project/

http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/605316/Prince-William-champions-of-Africa-endangered-wildlife

We just rescued a baby vervet monkey. He had no name so we’ve just named him JEFFREY (after my nephew!) Jeffrey was tied with a very short rope to a tree where he had very little access to shade and no access to water. He was situated in a tree above a bar that had music blasting out loud all day and night and there were lots of stray dogs barking at him as well as drunk and abusive people. We will now take him to the Born Free rehabilitation centre where he will be nursed back to full health and then released back into the wild.
Cosmos who is in all of the pics with me is the Project manager of the Zambia Primate Project (ZPP).

http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/primates/campaign-action/zambian-primate-project/

Jeffrey is a lovely little thing but really scared right now and also quite thin.  He is in the back of the bakkie under a tarpaulin but he has water and food which we brought for him.

All good and feeling quite emotional…

Cosmas found the missing baboon ‘John’ yesterday after a week of searching for him. He said when they found him he ran out of a tree and into Cosmos’s arms holding him tight.

We toasted the return of John safely to his troop at dinner last night. Cosmas said the whole group were barking and screaming with excitement and joy when John returned. Cosmas and I leave for the Copperbelt region tomorrow morning on attempted primate rescue!!!

I just heard that SAPU (SPECIAL ANTI POACHING UNIT) had a successful raid last night, 2 guys arrested after 2 van loads of bush-meat were discovered.

Think about how many dead animals it takes to fill 2 vans (bush meat) … It’s disgusting but also very sad.

Just got to Mukambi camp – lodge… Stinking hot here and Basil the hippo is visiting the bar tonight!

Going for a cold shower now, left a half eaten pear next to my bed last night and woke up covered in ants at 1am… need to strip my bed and have a shower…

A big pair of tusks weighing 15kgs each has this afternoon been discovered in an undercover raid by ZAWA in a township near to Lusaka. Poor b*#!y elephant!

Just found out it’s actually two pairs of tusks weighing 30kgs per pair. The punishment for proving possession is 5 years in prison (1st offence) and 15 years (2nd offence).  Elephants with this size tusks estimated to be 25 years old each …

Crying shame for them both …… So sad !

So yesterday afternoon a friend took me to a shop 5 miles from here to get food supplies.

We got stopped by Cops who caught her speeding 20kms over the limit. They say it’s a 300 kwacha (£30) on the spot fine. She  says “I’ve only got 30 kwacha (£3)  in cash on me so can you give me the fine and I will go pay it at the local police station later?”…

The Cop says ‘give me the 30 kwacha cash and you can go’… So it costs £3 here to get done for speeding he he … I love Africa

Just heard from Cosmas that a baboon named ‘John’ has gone missing from the release site, been missing since last night. The team are looking for him now and have been all morning. So worrying…